Friday 7 February Clwyd Railway
Circle
Brian Bollington & Peter Hanahoe 'Polish Steam'
The presentation
is a mix of slide shows and video showing steam on the national
network, including shed scenes, taken in the 1990’s.

Monday 10 February Wrexham Railway Society.
Fred
Kirk,
A
Scottish
Trip
60
Years
On.
The
results
of
a
week
long
trip
to
Scotland,
shed
bashing
previously
not
seen,
black
and
white
images
of
long
gone
shed
scenes,
Princes
Street
station
etc.

Friday 14 February Altrincham
Electric Preservation Society (Change of programme)
Well-known railway photographer Peter Fitton from the Fylde will be
giving a slide show entitled "The Railways of the Fylde from 1961".

Friday 7 March Clwyd Railway
Circle
The Committee & David Southern AGM followed by
the talk
'Railways of the Wirral' After the formality is over,
we can look
forward to Dave sharing his railway experiences of 60 years living on
the Wirral.

Monday 10 March Wrexham Railway Society.
Geoff
Morris-
Railways
of
New
Zealand
a
digital
presentation
based
on
two
steam-hauled
trips
around
New
Zealand
in
2011
&
2012
including
both
preservation
activities
and
the
rapidly-changing
current
railway
scene
on
the
other
side
of
the
world.

Monday 28 April RCTS
Merseyside, Chester & North Wales ‘South of the
Border steam in the 50s and 60s’ by David Kelso, David
travels from Kent to present a follow up to his earlier North of
the
border presentation, including a period when he was resident in the
West Riding of Yorkshire.

A different viewpoint - the view from inside Northgate Tunnel in
Chester, courtesy of rail worker 'Paddy F'. Notice how a fissure
in the rock on the right has been filled in by a diagonal line of
brickwork.

After the Storm

The railways of the Welsh coast are slowly returning to normal after
the storms. As we write on 13 January, the North Wales Coast route, the
Conwy Valley line and Shrewsbury - Aberystwyth are back to normal, but
Llanelli - Carmarthen and the Cambrian Coast line are still subject to
bus replacements. Ian Wright's pictures from 11 January
show work in progress at Milepost 89½ near Tywyn.

The adjacent road is closed to permit the operation. Maybe it will be
possible to open Machynlleth to Tywyn before too long.

Further north, 30 of the 'Dragon's teeth' tank-traps from World War
II,
a familiar landmark at Fairbourne, have been dislodged. The brick-built
'pill-box', which was also part of the
wartime defences, has collapsed.

37 402 now and then

37 402 and 57 003 at Valley loading site on Friday
10 January (Nick Gurney).

View from the public footpath as the pair await their load (Nick
Gurney). 37 402 has been named (with a BR-style red background on
its nameplate) Stephen Middlemore 23.12.1954 - 8.6.2013 by DRS.
Mr Middlemore was a Safety and Train Officer with DRS. 57 003, when
first converted from a Class 47 for Freightliner, carried the name Freightliner
Evolution, but has yet to be named by current owners DRS.

Having left Valley at 12:12 , 166 minutes early, it passed Peter
Basterfield's camera position on the footbridge at Penmaenbach at
12:48, 178 minutes early
... and arrived back in Crewe 3 minutes earlier than its booked
departure time
from Valley.

37 402 ran in the Scottish Highlands when first rebuilt from a Class
37/0 in 1985, and was given the name Oor Wullie after a famous
cartoon character. While in Scotland it was repainted from the 'large
logo blue' of 1995 to the double-grey with red stripe 'Mainline'
livery. The name plates were removed in 1993, and in October of that
year the loco was transferred to Regional Railways North West at Crewe
depot. From there it initially worked on the Southport and Blackpool
'club trains such as the one seen arriving at Deansgate in 1994
(picture by Charlie Hulme) as well as North Wales
services. When photographed it had recently received 'Railfreight
triple grey'
livery (but without the corresponding branding and symbols) and the Bont
y
Bermo
name which had originally been applied some to Cardiff-allocated 37
427.

John Lewis photographed 37 402, still looking good, at
Holyhead after a typical westbound run in 1999. Towards the end of loco
haulage in North Wales, EWS transferred it
to Cardiff where it worked passenger trains on the Rhymney line until
the end of 2004 when it was placed in store.

At some point during its South Wales career, if was given a partial
repaint, in an approximation of the style but in somewhat different
shades, as in the above picture from our archive. (If you took it,
please get in touch.) Note that the nameplate background has been
changed from black to red.

DRS bought it in 2011, and after an overhaul at Barrow Hill it was
returned to traffic in March 2013.

Gobowen freight - pictures by Martin Evans

For a few days in early January the steel coils from Margam to Dee
Marsh were in the hands of the Brush Class 60s. One such working saw 60
066 in its unique Drax Biomass livery pass through Gobowen on train
6V75 Dee Marsh to Margam empties on 9 January.

A few days later, and a 'shed' in charge. DB Schenker's 66
128 powers through Gobowen on 13 January with the Dee Marsh to
Margam steel empties in bright winter sunshine. Picture by Martin
Evans.

Class 175s in view

Class 175s continue to ply their trade on trains from North Wales to
Cardiff and Manchester. Above, 175 110 runs along the sea wall near
Mostyn on 31 December. Picture by Tim Rogers.

175 102 calls at Helsby with a Llandudno - Manchester
service on 9 January (Paddy F).

Past Times with John Hobbs (1) Rare move at Prestatyn

On Saturday 20 June 1964, Ivatt Class 4 2-6-4T 42283 (above)
worked the 12:08 Queensferry to Rhyl and is seen here leaving Prestatyn
bunker first; this was unusual, as generally tank locomotives were
turned before working down the coast.

Shortly afterwards the locomotive re-appeared on the 'Up Fast' line
from Rhyl and was signalled from the 'Up Fast' to the 'Up Slow'; this
move was very rare and I never saw such a move before or after. This
view shows the signal cleared for the manoeuvre to take place.

Generally on the 'Up' lines Rhyl No 2 made switching moves, as the 'Up'
Platform at Rhyl was effectively on the 'Up Slow', so stopping trains
were turned in there and Rhyl No1 then put them out on Fast or Slow as
required; Prestatyn was therefore not usually required to
undertake this work. It also appeared that the locomotive was required
back in Chester for some reason, so perhaps the locomotive was a
replacement for a failure and it was required back at Chester urgently
for its normal work, but why it had to go on the Slow is a mystery.

Photo information requested

Nigel Emery sends this picture of 47 349 westbound
through Bagillt with a Freightliner train, of which he'd like us to
establish the date and, if possible the details of the working. It must
be before 1991 when Holyhead Freightliners ceased, and a picture from 1984
shows the signalbox closed and in a vandalised condition (it has since
been demolished). There are no signals visible in the picture which
suggests it was already closed at the time. Any thoughts are welcome.

The locomotive still exists today, rebuilt as 57 303.

Past Times with John Hobbs (2) Crewe 50 Years Ago

Above, British Railways built "Type A" Bo-Bo E3090
approaches Crewe station with 7H67, a train of loose coupled open
wagons from Liverpool. The main line north of Weaver Junction was not
yet electrified, so this consist must have come from somewhere like
Ditton Junction at least. All on a rather damp 4 January 1964.

North British Locomotive Company-built "Warship" B-B D861Vigilant
comes off its train at Crewe on 4 January 1964 with, I
assume, the combined 7.43am from Bristol & 8.45 Cardiff to
Manchester and Liverpool, which was in Crewe at 12.15, the only West of
England/South Wales train that arrived before darkness descended (who
said train services are poor today?) In the background an
electric loco lurks with a what looks like a steam heating van, as most
trains were still steam heated at this time. Steam locomotives
including 71000Duke of Gloucester at Crewe North shed
can be glimpsed through the gloom.

Ex-LNER 4-6-0 61158 runs through Crewe station light-engine, possibly
having worked the Mail train from Lincoln via Nottingham, Trent and
Derby the previous night and having being used on a filling-in
turn before returning to Lincoln with the Mail train that evening;
again on 4 January 1964.

Fiasco at Pont Briwet

Latest news from Briwet bridge near Penrhyndeudraeth on the Cambrian
Coast, as reported by the Daily Post, is that it has now been
decided to close the damaged bridge to road traffic as well as rail. Eryl
Crump's picture above shows the state of the roadway.

It was blocked to trains last November, although it had been intended
to keep it open until the replacement bridge is built, because the
bridge was 'settling'. Now, rotting timbers underneath the deck
have led to Gwynedd Council closing the road over the bridge on the
grounds of
public
safety. Last month Network Rail said buses would replace trains on the
Harlech
- Pwllheli section until 2015 when the new bridge is completed, but
now a revised date of May 2014 has been put forward for work to be
completed on the new rail bridge and a temporary road bridge to open to
traffic. Let's hope so.

A picture from happier times: 11 May 2013, and the 'Cathedrals Explorer
Moors and Mountains' eight-day tour makes its way to Porthmadog over
Briwet bridge at the required 15 mph with 97 303 and 97 304
in charge. Picture by M.LLoyd Davies.